Spitzer Makes His Return to Albany

For the first time since a high-profile prostitution scandal claimed his once-promising political career, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer returned to the state’s capital city.

Spitzer, who took office with a record-setting electoral victory in 2006 before resigning in 2008, spoke Sunday before a crowd of more than 100 at a fundraiser for WAMC, an Albany-based public-radio station that counts the Democrat among its donors.

He took questions for more than an hour from WAMC CEO Alan Chartock, as well as written inquiries from audience members who paid $100 for a pair of tickets as part of a fundraiser for the station.

Spitzer touched on a range of topics—from the presidential race to regulation of Wall Street banks to hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. But he also displayed a reluctance to assess the job of current Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a fellow Democrat whom as attorney general investigated Spitzer’s role in the Troopergate scandal.